The Importance of Being Earnest...

I'm doing some teaching (Bible) at a local Christian high school this year, still pastoring Grace Church, but teaching part-time. It's fun and at the same time, a real challenge. For one thing, high school kids have no problem letting you know you are boring.
(Their parents are a little more subtle...)
If I were going to come up with a list of things I want most for my students this year, I keep thinking that one of the things I want most is that they would be earnest. I'm not talking a freaky earnest, you know buggy eyes and walking everywhere in a hurry earnest. I'm not talking a watch out you say something wrong I'll pounce on you earnest.
I'm talking a life is short, there is an eternity earnest.
I guess, I just don't understand a casual laissez faire attitude towards life. There are too many needs, too much to be done, too little time, too great a Savior, too wonderful a gospel, too much to learn, to just take that approach.
I think I remember Dr. MacArthur once talking about preaching with a kind of 'relaxed desperation.' Relaxed because you trust in the sovereignty of God, because you know it doesn't all depend on you, because you understand your place in the great scheme of things, because you believe in the Holy Spirit. But desperate because you know what's at stake and because you know God uses means.
That's the kind of attitude I think we should all develop towards life...that's what I'm talking about when I talk about being earnest.
Relaxed, but desperate.
God is sovereign but He uses me, earnest!